Can. 814 The prescripts established for universities apply equally to other institutes of higher learning.
Can. 815 Ecclesiastical universities or faculties, which are to investigate the sacred disciplines or those connected to the sacred and to instruct students scientifically in the same disciplines, are proper to the Church by virtue of its function to announce the revealed truth.
Can. 816 §1. Ecclesiastical universities and faculties can be established only through erection by the Apostolic See or with its approval; their higher direction also pertains to it.
§2. Individual ecclesiastical universities and faculties must have their own statutes and plan of studies approved by the Apostolic See.
Can. 817 No university or faculty which has not been erected or approved by the Apostolic See is able to confer academic degrees which have canonical effects in the Church.[1]
Independent institutions or individual faculties at non-pontifical universities may also be given charters by the Holy See (under canon 814) to grant pontifical degrees, usually in one or two specific fields. These are referred to as a "pontifical faculty," "pontifical institute," or "pontifical athenaeo" to distinguish them from an entire "pontifical university," which incorporates at least four faculties, including theology, canon law, and philosophy.
The vicariate (diocese) of Rome has established an office for campus ministry and the pastoral care of students, the Office of Pastorale Universitaria. This office serves students at the pontifical universities as well as those enrolled at state universities.
Academic degrees
Pontifical universities divide studies into 3 cycles: the first cycle of varying duration, after which is obtained a Bachelor (Baccalaureato), the second cycle, which leads to the conferment of a License degree (Licenza), and finally the third cycle, which grant a Graduate degree (Dottorato).[2][3] The duration of courses varies from university to university.
In Italy "degrees in Sacred Theology and other specific ecclesiastical disciplines (Sacred Scriptures, Canon Law, Spirituality, Sacred Liturgy, Missiology, and Religious Sciences),[4] conferred by a Faculty approved by the Holy See are recognized by the State" pursuant to art. 10/II of the 25 March 1985 n.21 Law (OJ No 28, April 10, 1985). However, no measures were taken designed to establish a priori the equivalence with the titles conferred by Italian universities. It is therefore not possible to predetermine a mandatory equivalence for qualifications issued by pontifical universities with those issued by state universities. Indeed, in Italy, constant changes make it very complex to unify a university curriculum with the problem of equality that must be resolved, at their request, from time to time by the relevant Ministry of Education, University and Research.[5]
Rome has twenty-two pontifical institutions.[10] They are organized as pontifical universities (with respect to can. 815), and pontifical athenaea, institutes of higher education, and faculties (these with respect to can. 814). (The Religious Order or other ecclesiastical body responsible for the administration of the university is listed in parentheses.)
^Utriusque iuris literally means of "both rights," that is, of Civil (or Roman) Law and Canon Law, for which the Pontifical Institute of Utriusque Iuris was created at the Pontifical Lateran University. In this regard, this faculty respects the tradition of teaching law in the traditional form prior to the 18th century codifications of the when law faculties taught, along with theology, the two major schools of legal thought: Canon law and Roman/Civil law
